"Biggest solar storm in years races toward Earth, could disrupt power grid, GPS and more"
So it has begun. Bye, bye in 2012. I already have my aluminum foil beanie on to protect me from the rays. Charlie won't wear his.
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"On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, most notably over the Caribbean; also noteworthy were those over the Rocky Mountains that were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.[3] People who happened to be awake in the northeastern US could read a newspaper by the aurora's light.[4]
Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases even shocking telegraph operators.[5] Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire.[6] Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.[7]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
"Earth Under Fire" by Dr. Paul LaViolette is available through the Racine Public Library.
"Prehistoric Solar Conflagration - prevailing concept (1983): At the time of LaViolette's prediction, the general opinion was that the Sun has remained in its present quiescent solar cycle state for hundreds of millions of years. A small group of astronomers, however, dissented with this view. For example, in 1969, astrophysicist Thomas Gold published lunar rock evidence indicating that, within the last 30,000 years, the radiation intensity on the Moon had reached 100 suns for 10 to 100 seconds, possibly due to a solar nova. In 1975, astronomer A. Lovell suggested that sun-like stars occasionly produce flares of up to 10^37 ergs, 30,000 times more energetic than the largest solar flare of modern times. In 1977, astrophysicists Wdowczyk and Wolfendale suggested that the Sun might produce a flare a million times larger (3 X 10^38 ergs) about once every 100,000 years. Moreover in 1978, NASA astronomers Zook, Hartung, and Storzer had published lunar rock evidence indicating that 16,000 years ago solar flare background radiation intensity on the Moon's surface had peaked to 50 times the current intensity and that this may have been somehow associated with the retreat of the ice sheets. The idea that the Earth and Moon might have been affected in the past by the arrival of a giant solar coronal mass ejection had not yet been advanced"
http://www.etheric.com/LaViolette/Predict.html
People are going to be pissed, no cell phones,
Gee, I was hoping to lay out... it might take away some of that 'winter blue' tinge.
This flare was a good size, but not huge. I would be surprised if there were serious disruptions (especially since we had warning and a couple of the most vulnerable satellites were put in safe mode).
That's the thing...these will not directly harm anyone on Earth. All harmful effects are from communication/electrical grid disruption. Those are things we can take precaution against IF we have the few hours advance warning provided by our Sun monitoring satellites and telescopes.
And if you have been paying attention to recent solar research, there are a lot more people looking at the decreasing magnetic field strength and lack of subsurface jet streams on the Sun that seem to indicated weakening solar cycles (my February 365 Days of Astronomy podcast was an interview with Dr. Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory on this very topic).
For those interested in this story , google "stereo satellites"
We have also learned in recent years as a result of drilling down in the ice fields of Greenland, large solar flares creates mass extinctions on this planet about every 225,000 years. Makes you wonder about the Mayan
calendar. The alignment to the center of our universe of the planets on 12-21-2012 is also something that only happens every 25,000 years. Beam me up Scotty!
REPENT THE END IS NEAR!
KK you could turn into a post tostie....
I've wrapped my computer, telephone, and truck in aluminum foil to protect their electronics.
kk, SER is right. One solar flare could make you a crispy critter.
As for hale's logic and reason, pfft! This is no time for logic and reason. The Mayans predicted this. Are you going to believe a scientist or the Mayans?
Btw, do you have any idea how much it costs to wrap a truck in aluminum foil? Charlie will be eating better than me for a month.
Sorry, this "alignment to the center of the universe"? First time I have heard that one as the center of the Universe is kind of like asking what is north of north. There isn't a center.
Some claim there will be an alignment between the Earth, Sun and center of our Galaxy...but that happens every year on the winter solstice and we survived it just fine last year (and even at that, the Sun is will still be several degrees from the center of our galaxy...and there is no physical reason this should do anything unusual).
And in case you are wondering, everyone here knows that I work at a fairly large observatory, so I think we have a pretty good handle on this.
Well, you claim to work for a fairly large observatory...
The Mayans, on the other hand, did not need any observatories to figure out that the world is going to end this year.
Orbs, you bring up a good point about the Myans not using an obseratory, how did they do the calculations without a calculator or computer,
Forget about extinction. So the big question is now where is north of north?
Don't get me wrong, the Mayans were pretty darn clever. They knew a lot more about the sky than your average American (or European or Asian for that matter) does today.
However, there is an important difference. Centuries ago, you had to know when to plant and harvest crops, the the Nile would flood and when the seasons would change. When your life depends on these things, you work your ass off to figure it out! I don't think too many Americans are going to die this year because they couldn't figure out when to plant their crops by looking at the sky!
Many of the skills people had hundreds of years ago have been lost because they are no longer necessary for survival.
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